​For several decades in America, athletic programs in colleges and universities received financial support and resources primarily from their respective schools and such sources as alumni and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). More recently, however, college coaches assigned to athletic departments and the presidents and marketing or public relations officials of schools organize, initiate, and participate in fund-raising campaigns and thus obtain a portion of revenue for their sports programs from local, regional and national businesses, and from other private donors, groups, and organizations. Because of this inflow of assets and financial capital, intercollegiate athletic budgets and types of sports expanded and in turn, these programs became increasingly important, popular, and reputable as revenue and cost centers within American schools of higher education.​​

In an era when college football coaches frequently command higher salaries than university presidents, many call for reform to restore the balance between amateur athletics and the educational mission of schools. This book traces attempts at college athletics reform from 1855 through the early twenty-first century while analyzing the different roles played by students, faculty, conferences, university presidents, the NCAA, legislatures, and the Supreme Court. Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform also tackles critically important questions about eligibility, compensation, recruiting, sponsorship, and rules enforcement. Discussing reasons for reform--to combat corruption, to level the playing field, and to make sports more accessible to minorities and women--Ronald A. Smith candidly explains why attempts at change have often failed. Of interest to historians, athletic reformers, college administrators, NCAA officials, and sports journalists, this thoughtful book considers the difficulty in balancing the principles of amateurism with the need to draw income from sporting events.

Why do universities place so much emphasis on athletics? Are the salaries of head coaches excessive? Should student-athletes be paid? Why is there so much cheating in college sports? Should athletic departments be subsidized by the university? Does Title IX unfairly discriminate against men's sports? This textbook is designed to help teach students about the business of college sports, particularly the big-money sports of football and basketball, allowing them to answer these and other important questions. The book provides undergraduate students with the information and economic tools to analyze the behavior of the NCAA, athletic conferences, and individual colleges and universities in the market for college sports. Specific topics include the markets for athletes and coaches, the importance of athletics for colleges and universities, the finances of athletic departments, the influence of the media in commercializing college sports, issues of race and gender, and the possibilities for reforming college sports.

This practical, comprehensive book combines solid theoretical concepts with relevant examples, extensive factual information, and important insider perspectives to help prepare students who are interested in pursuing a career in collegiate athletics management. The authors' in-depth discussions reveal the inner workings of athletic departments and the conferences and governing organizations that impact them. Using examples from institutions of varying sizes and representing numerous conferences, associations, and divisions, Managing Intercollegiate Athletics, second edition, provides an extensive view of management processes such as generating revenue to cover expenses; recruiting and its mechanics and regulations; the role of the conferences and national governing bodies; and academic standards, reform, and fraud. New to the second edition is an increased emphasis on the impact of division, institution, and department missions and goals on decision making. The book also includes new discussions of the application of management functions--including goal setting, decision making, and strategic management--on intercollegiate athletics at various levels. Adding to the practical nature of the book, and providing an important critical-thinking component to each chapter, are "Practitioner Perspectives." These contributions demonstrate how and why administrators make and implement their decisions, and they present creative problem-solving ideas for readers that they can use in their own careers. New Practitioner Perspectives in this edition provide, for example, an insider's view from an NCAA vice president, a conference commissioner, and a Division I athletic director. Chapters also feature one or more Case Studies offering an in-depth look at how institutions grapple with management challenges. In the second edition, new case studies look at the NCAA's leadership role in the Penn State University abuse case, the role of the TRAC model to ensure data-based decision making in terminating the University of Alabama at Birmingham football program, and others. These case studies and accompanying questions can serve as starting points for class discussion.

Perhaps more than any other two colleges, Harvard and Yale gave form to American intercollegiate athletics--a form that was inspired by the Oxford-Cambridge rivalry overseas, and that was imitated by colleges and universities throughout the United States. Focusing on the influence of these prestigious eastern institutions, this fascinating study traces the origins and development of intercollegiate athletics in America from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. Smith begins with an historical overview of intercollegiate athletics and details the evolution of individual sports--crew, baseball, track and field, and especially football. Then, skillfully setting various sports events in their broader social and cultural contexts, Smith goes on to discuss many important issues that are still relevant today: student-faculty competition for institutional athletic control; the impact of the professional coach on big-time athletics; the false concept of amateurism in college athletics; and controversies over eligibility rules. He also reveals how the debates over brutality and ethics created the need for a central organizing body, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which still runs college sports today. Sprinkled throughout with spicy sports anecdotes, from the Thanksgiving Day Princeton-Yale football game that drew record crowds in the 1890s to a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt on football violence, this lively, in-depth investigation will appeal to serious sports buffs as well as to anyone interested in American social and cultural history.